Willingness to get vaccinated against Covid-19: profiles and attitudes towards vaccination

Background - High uptake of a Covid-19 vaccine is required for a successful vaccination campaign that manages to reach herd immunity. Objective - To identify the predictors associated with someone’s willingness to get vaccinated against Covid-19, and to investigate whether these coincide with the predictors of attitudes towards vaccination in general. Methods: A representative sample of 2,060 Belgians were surveyed between 6 and 16 October 2020. Regression analyses were used to calculate adjusted and non-adjusted odds ratios of variables associated to someone’s willingness to become vaccinated and to vaccine attitudes in general. Results - 34% (n=651) of the participants reported that they will definitely get vaccinated against Covid-19 once a vaccine is available and 39% (n=742) that they would “probably”. Intended uptake was strongly associated with age, opinion on the government’s dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, medical risk and spoken language, and to a lesser extent with gender and having known someone who was hospitalised because of Covid-19. Similar predictors were identified for attitudes to vaccination in general. However, Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy was more marked in age groups below 54 years old. We further analysed a sample of 17% (n=349) of the participants found favourable to vaccination in general but not willing to vaccinate against Covid-19. These people were mainly female, young, French speaking, slightly less educated, and working. They also did not belong to a Covid-19 risk group, were very dissatisfied with the government’s dealing with the Covid-19 crisis, and did not know personally someone who was hospitalized because of Covid-19. Conclusions - The majority of Belgians intend to get vaccinated, though uptake is lower in groups at lower risk of severe forms of Covid-19. Levels of vaccine hesitancy seem higher for Covid-19 vaccination than for other vaccines, with a substantial part of the population being convinced of the utility of vaccination in general but nonetheless being hesitant about the Covid-19 vaccine. Communication campaigns will need to inform on the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccination to encourage uptake.